Pennington Flash

Lapwings

I sort of drifted into a visit to Pennington Flash this afternoon, passing the peregrine falcon perched on the Beyond building by the Trafford Centre along the way.

Walking in from St Helens Road 

It was a grey and blustery afternoon, very mild for October. It was very quiet on the walk in from St Helens Road, a few robins and wrens muttered from the undergrowth and woodpigeons dozed in the trees.

Lesser black-back
This bird illustrated the problem with relying on the darkness of a gull's wing and mantle for identification purposes. When I arrived at the car park this bird looked too pale for a lesser black-back and too dark for a herring gull. Structurally it couldn't be anything but one of those two and a bit long in the wing for a herring gull. Looking back at it thirty yards down the car park it was a textbook lesser black-back. Even in flat light like today's the angle of the light plays tricks.

The car park oystercatcher mingled with the mallards, moorhens and black-headed gulls. Canada geese and mute swans cruised along the banks while a couple of Muscovy ducks dozed on the bankside with a couple of lesser black-backs.

The biggest raft of coots on the open water, roughly fifty birds, was just off the car park. It was padded out by a couple of great crested grebes and a few tufted ducks. More tufted ducks and grebes were out in midwater. I had a scan through to see if any of the Winter regulars had arrived early, impatience is always disappointed. It was too early in the day for the gull roost so nearly all the gulls were black-headed with barely handfuls of lesser black-backs and herring gulls out there.

There was a patch of water that was conspicuously birdless. A film crew were at work on the bank near the sailing club and whatever it was the mallards and black-headed gulls didn't see any chance of a feed from it.

Egyptian goose

Walking down a bit the Egyptian goose was preening at the waterside opposite the café. It seems odd that I've only been seeing single birds this year. I didn't see the usual pair that usually turn up here every July, I hope I just missed them and that they haven't come amiss.

Lapwings

The water was high at the Horrocks Hide and the spit had become an island. I could hear snipe but couldn't see them. The sixty-odd lapwings at the end of the spit with the teal and cormorants were more obliging. A couple of times they took to the wing and although they carried starlings, crows and black-headed gulls along for the ride any snipe that may have been around kept to the ground out of sight.

From the Tom Edmondson Hide 

The pool at the Tom Edmondson Hide was heaving with gadwall again. It seems to be a bumper Autumn for gadwall and shovelers, I can't remember the last time I consistently saw so many.

The teal and shovelers at the Ramsdales Hide were dozing in the cover of the vegetation on the mostly submerged islands and were hard work to find. The Cetti's warbler singing from the reeds didn't break cover while I was there.

Pengy's pool had yet more gadwall and a few dabchicks. Three herons loafed on the low branches of willows.

The feeders at the Bunting Hide were nearly empty so the chaffinches, robins and a brown rat were having a thin time of it. The flooding's receded but anyone filling the feeders will need to be wearing good wellies and carrying a stick for balance in the mud.

Shoveler

There were more gadwalls and shovelers on the pool at the Charlie Owen Hide. The gadwalls were paired up while the drake shovelers seemed intent on accumulating a harem each. Both were very vocal, the mallards dozing on the mud kept quiet. As did the dabchicks that were busy round the reed edges.

Mallards, gadwalls, shoveler and coot

Walking back I disturbed a grey wagtail that was catching midges over the puddles on the path. It flew over to the little pool at the corner where there were also a pair of goldcrests working their way through the bushes. A migrant hawker passed by, a bit late in the day but they don't seem to mind the gloom, which might be why it seems to have been such a good year for them.

A little further on a mixed tit flock — equal numbers of long-tailed, blue and great — crossed paths with a small flock of goldfinches and chaffinches in the willows by the path. There were a couple of minutes of merry confusion before the two flocks went their separate ways.

I walked through to the Sports Village and got the bus back into Leigh from Pennington Hall Park after a very productive couple of hours' wander.

From the Charlie Owen Hide